On August 1, 2010 the Queensland Russian Community Centre held its Annual General Meeting for 2009 – 2010 financial year. The meeting broke all attendance records, with more than 80% of financial members attending the meeting. More than 100 people filled the main hall of the Queensland Russian Community Centre.

President, Kerry Gosse, opened the meeting and thanked all members for attending, and the committee members and other dedicated volunteers for their hard work throughout the year.

Main items on the agenda were financial report and audited financial statements presented to members by the leader of the internal audit subcommittee, Elena Gosse, and findings from the subcommittee consisting of Marina Pollard, Viktor Tyukavkin and Kerry Gosse about future development of the QRCC.

In her report, Elena Gosse, presented figures from the audited financial statements and a detailed explanation of where these figures came from. Although income generated from the hall hire and the profit from the events nearly doubled compared to the last financial year, the committee could not use this profit for new projects due to the high maintenance cost of the old building and increase in other operational costs. Due to a lack of volunteers, the Centre also lost one of its major sources of income -pelmeni and pirozhki sales. Elena has pointed out that if it would not be for donations the Centre received throughout the year, the QRCC could be financially unsound.

By unanimous votes the QRCC financial statement was accepted and new auditor was appointed for 2010 – 2011 financial year.

The changes to the QRCC Rules were accepted by majority votes.

Marina Pollard has introduced to members four options for future development. These are:

1. Cosmetic Renovation of the existing hall with a budget of $50,000 (mainly to purchase materials) and our own labour
2. Sale of the existing hall with simultaneous purchase of a block of land away from CBD and building of the new hall there or simultaneous purchase of the existing hall away from CBD to be adjusted to our needs.
3. Significant refurbishment of the existing hall
4. Building of the hall on the existing land.

The Architect, Martin Chant, from the Office of Progressive Architecture Pty Ltd introduced to members a plan for a new development on the existing land. He used a Power Point presentation for members to visualise the benefits of a complete redevelopment of the building. The Grant Access Worker from the Multicultural Development Association, Alice Orozco, outlined the available to QRCC options in funding the project. With the majority of votes the plan for the complete redevelopment on the existing land was accepted. The main focus for the 2010-2011 Management Committee will be on conducting fundraising activities to enable this project to become a reality by 2012, when Queensland Russian Community Centre would celebrate its 40th birthday as well as continue to run a healthy profit from running events and activities for the community.

The plan for building of the hall on the existing land was also accepted by majority of votes.

The Treasurer of QRCC and the Queensland Representative of Russian Council in Australia Natalia Morozoff reported to the financial members the great work some of the volunteers done for the QRCC, outlined events that were held during the year and introduced the nominations for 2010-2011 Management Committee.

New President Elena Gosse told that she feels very humbled and honoured to lead a great team of highly professional individuals who are able to meet expectations of financial members of QRCC. Ms Gosse urged all members of the Russian speaking community to unite to change the life of the community for the better. In conclusion, Ms Gosse said: “QRCC objectives are going in line with the Objectives of the Russian Government. In particular, the spread of Russian language and dissemination of cultural heritage of Russia in to the wider community. I believe that anyone who is interested in Russia and its culture could become an official member of the QRCC. We already feel a great deal of interest in our culture and that is a tremendous achievement’.

We wish a success to the new Management Committee of the Queensland Russian Community Centre and hope that under the leadership of an experienced businesswoman such as Elena Gosse, we will soon feel the fresh wind of change.